Steamforged sorcery a li.., p.23
Steamforged Sorcery: A LitRPG Adventure, page 23
“Tell her yourself,” Angel said, thrusting his blade up through the bandit’s chin. His head jerked back and he made a gurgling noise. Angel leaned forward, shoving the formerly huge man over the railing.
The captain tumbled, landing with a thud. He didn’t move again. Angel felt as if there should have been a moment of silence, but that didn’t happen.
Silver continued his gruesome work, dancing through the bandits and making mincemeat of them. With the death of their captain, there was nothing left to stand against him. Lilian took her fair share of them down with her as well.
In a few minutes, the fight was over. Angel leaned on the railing, his hand pressed against his stomach as he looked at the carnage below him. He couldn’t help himself. He threw up.
“First slaughter?” Silver asked, walking up the stairs to stand beside him.
“And hopefully my last,” Angel muttered.
“Doubtful,” Silver said. “Did you know that most bloodbaths are caused by repeat offenders?”
Angel just shook his head. The man was far too jovial. They’d just killed easily one hundred people. It wasn’t that he had any qualms against that – bandits were scum and murderers. Even so, his conscience was heavy. The horrible scent permeating the air didn’t help.
“So,” Silver said, watching Angel with a hand on the hilt of his sword.
“So indeed,” Angel replied.
“Why do you try so hard?” Silver suddenly asked. “What does the girl matter? She surely can’t be worth all the effort and blood you’ve spent for her.”
“Most people aren’t,” Angel said with a chuckle. “It’s not about what people are worth, Silver. She’s not just a duty to me. We’re friends. Money won’t help me go to sleep at night knowing that I’ve betrayed someone I care about.”
Unreadable emotion washed over Silver’s face. He shook his head. “Lilian is looking for her now. She’ll find her soon enough – and then the deal is off. You’re an interesting man, Angel. It’ll be a shame to kill you.”
“We don’t have to be enemies, you know,” Angel said.
“That’s what I’ve been saying. Forget the girl and make some good money. I need to rebuild my crew anyway, and you’d be a worthy first mate.”
“Can’t do that,” Angel said. “I finish what I start, and I won’t betray my friend. There’s little enough happiness in the desert, and I won’t be snuffing any more of it myself. Besides, how can you so willingly sell someone into slavery when we nearly became victims of it ourselves?”
Silver didn’t respond immediately. “Do you really think you can protect her? She knows nothing, Angel. The girl seems nice enough for a noble, but the Magistrate of Brineview knows you’re taking her to a school. He’ll find her. Are you going to bodyguard her for the rest of your life?”
“I sure won’t be the one that brings her in,” Angel said, spitting on the ground. His saliva was tinged red with blood. “I can’t keep her safe forever, but I’ll take her to the school. At least I can do that. She doesn’t deserve to get sold into slavery, fake marriage or not. Nobody does.”
Silver shook his head. “Your bleeding heart will get you killed.”
“At least I’ll die for something,” Angel said. “Better a bleeding heart than none at all. What have you got to show for your life, Silver? Does anyone care about you? Remember what you’ve done? You don’t even have the gold from the Magistrate right now.”
“I have my reputation,” Silver snapped, fury rising in his voice. Angel could tell he’d struck a nerve. “If I don’t complete this job, nobody will hire me again. I’d be trading the girl’s life for my own, and I have no plans of doing that. The desert wrings the love out of men like water. You’ll understand soon enough.”
“You’re wrong,” Angel said. “The desert is harsh, but it doesn’t take the good out of people. People do that themselves. I’ve done my fair share of walking in the shadows, Silver. I’m no saint, and I’ve got blood on my hands. But don’t you try to blame your evil on the desert. That’s you, and you alone.”
Silver stared at Angel, his eyes burning into the Seeker’s. The two of them stood, unmoving, for nearly a minute. Finally, Silver glanced away.
Angel shook his head. He looked out over the railing at the sand below them. The barge had stopped at some point during their fight. There was no sign of Silver’s old ship or crew.
“Captain Silver doesn’t have to survive the crash.”
“What?”
“You went down with your ship,” Angel said. “Blaze of glory. Killed the bandits and died in the process. The desert is a big place, Silver. Easy for one man to vanish.”
Silver opened his mouth. Then he closed it and cocked his head to the side, examining Angel. “And what would I do? Become a philanthropist?”
“Well, I happen to be in need of a Hunter,” Angel said. “Interested?”
Silver leaned against the railing and nudged his hat out of the way. For the first time since Angel had met him, the man looked surprised. “You want to hire me?”
“Sound that surprised and you’ll give me second thoughts.”
“Do you really think I can leave my life behind so easily?” Silver pressed, ignoring Angel’s sarcasm. “I’ve been in the business for years. Could you give up being a Seeker at the drop of a hat?”
“No,” Angel said. “But seeking doesn’t involve selling people into slavery either. I’m not forcing you to do anything, Silver. But, one day, we’re both going to die. And when that day comes, I’m going to face it knowing I brought Old World Magic back. On your current path, you’ll face it knowing that thousands of your victims are waiting for you at the steps to the afterlife.”
“And you think that escorting this girl will absolve me of my crimes?”
“It’s a start.”
The rattle of chain broke their conversation. Lilian emerged from a trapdoor. Vanessa followed out after her, looking frazzled but uninjured.
“Time to make a decision,” Angel said, thumbing one of the canisters in his arm holster.
Silver looked down at the approaching women. He lifted his massive hat off his head and set it down on a post in the railing.
“I suppose you said it yourself,” Silver said. “Legends all meet their ends eventually, and what better funeral for a bandit captain than the wreckage of a sand barge?”
“You mean…”
“I’ll take you up on your offer,” Silver said with a sharklike smile. “It’s time to try my hand playing a round for the other team. At least that way, I’ll be able to say I tried.”
Angel paused. He honestly hadn’t expected the captain to accept his offer. He released the canister and chuckled. A small burst of pain ran through his body as wounds reminded him of their presence.
“I found the girl,” Lilian told them, walking up the stairwell. “Loot as well. A good amount of it. The bandits were wealthy.”
Vanessa wore the beautiful gauntlet they’d found in the Great Catacomb, and she had several canisters. Vanessa’s eyes widened as she recognized Silver standing beside Angel. She started to raise the gauntlet.
“Hold on,” Angel said. “Believe it or not, I think he’s on our side now.”
“He tried to kidnap me,” Vanessa said flatly.
“Tried being the key word,” Silver said, tipping an imaginary hat to her. It didn’t quite have the same effect when his real hat was about a foot away from him on the railing.
“We still need protection to get across the desert,” Angel said. “I think Silver is being genuine about wanting to turn over a new leaf.”
“For now,” Silver added. “No promises for anything long term. I’m a lot of things, but I’m no liar.”
“Just a kidnapper,” Vanessa said.
“Attempted kidnapper.”
“Fine,” Vanessa said, lowering her hand slightly. “I trust Angel. I don’t trust you.”
“Smart,” Silver said. “Just be glad your friend has a quick tongue. He’s very convincing.”
Vanessa shook her head. “What happened to Cowl?”
The Seeker pulled Cowl’s mask out and tossed it to Vanessa. “That’s all I’ve found of his belongings, unless you managed to spot something when you were looting the bandits.”
“We found his sword,” Vanessa said. “It was too heavy for me to lift, though.”
“And I can’t use a sword,” Lilian added. “It’s of no worth to me. Carrying it around is just asking for trouble.”
“So he’s dead, then,” Silver said. “Unfortunate. He was a respectable fighter.”
“He betrayed us,” Vanessa said, her brow tight and her eyes thin. “I thought we were friends.”
“Nothing to do about it now,” Angel said, sitting down against the railing to try and get more comfortable as his body healed. “He got what was coming. Silver’s right about one thing, though – his death was unfortunate. I feel like he had some reason for turning against us beyond what we know, but we’ll never find out now.”
“Enough of the past,” Silver said. “What’s our path from here, my esteemed employers?”
“We’re headed to Molten Ridges,” Angel replied. “But I need to figure out where we currently are before figuring out what the next stop will be.”
“We’re about two weeks’ travel away from the center of the Barren,” Lilian piped up. She’d been silent since they’d started speaking, and Angel had almost forgotten she was there.
“How do you know?” Silver asked.
“I’ve got an artifact implant,” Lilian said, pulling her rough shirt down to reveal a small metal coin in her collarbone. “It’s a system artifact with access to a map of the Barren. I know where I am at all times – lot of good that’s done me recently.”
“Convenient,” Angel said. “What’s your story anyway? How did the bandits catch you?”
“I was traveling the desert in a chopper with a few other people,” Lilian said, her tone darkening. “They shot it down with their runed ballista, killing most of my crew. They killed everyone else when they arrived, leaving me alive to sell as a slave because of my artifacts.”
“I’m sorry,” Vanessa said, putting a comforting hand on the other woman’s shoulder.
“I survived. I’m thankful for that.”
“What’s your plan now, then?” Angel asked. Her story didn’t ring completely true with him, but he couldn’t find any clear falsehoods either.
“If you don’t mind another member, I’d like to join you,” Lilian said, rubbing her arm. “The desert is more dangerous than it used to be, and that’s saying a lot because it’s always been a deathtrap. I can pull my own weight.”
“I don’t think I’ve got any objection to that,” Angel said, shrugging. The motion made another twinge of pain shoot into his stomach. “It looked like you know your way around your fight anyway.”
“Looked?” Lilian asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’ve got a system artifact, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“So why haven’t you scanned me?”
“It’s impolite,” Angel said defensively. “And I only just got it back.”
“Really? You didn’t strike me as the type to care about that.”
Angel made a face. The wound on his stomach throbbed. He could see the skin and muscles pulling themselves back together. It wasn’t pretty.
“You’re right,” Angel admitted. “I couldn’t care less. I just haven’t had a chance to look yet. I’m a bit preoccupied.”
He flicked the eyepiece down. Comforting orange light washed over his surroundings as the artifact scanned them. Angel turned his attention to Lilian.
Race: Human
Name: Lilian
Level 91
Status: Healthy
Information accuracy: 74%
Strength: 82
Intelligence: 14
Nimbleness: 50
Toughness: 36
Comparative Rating: Incredible Threat
Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, Arteries… (100/100)
Element(s): Unknown
“Well, this is a bit embarrassing,” Angel said. “You’re higher level than I am.”
“Seriously?” Lilian asked, shocked. “I saw what that arm of yours does. It must not be taken into account by the system.”
“That makes sense,” Silver said, his sword slithering from hand to hand. “It’s still an artifact, not part of his body. The System is flawed, after all. It was made so long ago that I’m surprised it doesn’t have more problems with all the things that have changed.”
Silver’s eyes alighted on the corpse of the woman who had stolen Angel’s canisters. He strode over to it, his sword flicking into his hand, and drove the blade into her chest. The others recoiled as Silver dug around inside her body and pulled out a small, gray orb.
“What?” Silver asked, walking back over to them. “Did you want this?”
“Absolutely not,” Angel said, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “Why would I want that? What is it?”
“Some Seeker you are,” Silver snorted. “It’s a core.”
“Like a monster core?” Vanessa asked. “Humans have those?”
“Where did you think your magical energy was stored?” Silver asked. “Great way to get some extra energy. You don’t get any for killing other humans because these little baubles keep it all locked up.”
“Monsters have energy distributed throughout their body as well as their cores,” Angel added, seeing the question forming on Vanessa’s lips. “Humans are inherently nonmagical, so all of our energy goes to our core.”
“I’m going to regret asking this,” Vanessa said, her eyebrows pulled tougher in disgust. “But how do you get the energy out?”
“You eat it,” Silver said. “Obviously.”
“Right, I regret asking,” Vanessa said, gagging. “That’s dangerously close to cannibalism.”
“I guess you don’t want it, then. What about you, Angel?”
“Hard pass,” Angel said.
Silver shrugged and wiped the orb off on his shirt before tossing it into his mouth. He swallowed, shuddering as energy twinkled around him before fading away. “Ah, that’s the good stuff. She had a good bit of energy.”
Angel’s mouth curled in distaste, but he said nothing. After how close the fight had been, he couldn’t claim that he wasn’t tempted by the thought.
TWENTY-THREE
The wound in Angel’s foot was nearly healed enough to walk, and the one in his stomach was healing as well. He wasn’t quite desperate enough for power to resort to cannibalism. That sort of thing didn’t come without its own costs, and he preferred to keep his stupid decisions down to one per week.
With a grunt, Angel pulled himself to his feet with the railing. Vanessa helped him, her brow creased in worry.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll live,” Angel said. “My magical energy is already taking care of most of it. More importantly, did you get the bandits’ loot?”
She nodded, unclipping a heavy bag from her waist and offering it to him. He peered inside and was nearly blinded when the sun reflected off the Vei inside. Besides the Vei, there were several disks and a tiny orb that were likely artifacts of some sort. He closed the bag and handed it back to Vanessa.
“Hey, you’ve got my coin in there,” Silver said. “Give it here – if I’m betraying the Magistrate, you better believe I’m still getting paid for it.”
Vanessa shot a glance at Angel, but he just shrugged. He didn’t care for the money, and she was so rich, it didn’t matter. Paying Silver off would be the best use of the coin. Silver plucked the bag from her hands. He removed several
handfuls of Vei and tossed the much lighter bag back to Vanessa.
“Not taking any for yourself, Seeker?”
“I’ll take a few coins, but Vanessa should hang on to the rest for now,” Angel said. Vanessa handed him a handful of Vei. “If we need to fight, I don’t want to be carrying it around. Anyway, we’ve gotten completely off topic. Lilian, you said you knew where we were.”
The girl gave a meek nod.
“Could you elaborate on that?”
“We’re about five days’ travel to the east of the center of the Barren,” Lilian said. “Molten Ridge is twenty days to the north if we don’t stop at any cities, and the nearest city is Starfall. It’s four days to the northeast, and will probably add about one day to our journey if we stop there.”
“That’s quite an artifact,” Angel said, scratching his chin as he processed her words. “Right. Silver, how many bandits did that Brineview bastard hire to come after Vanessa?”
“Just me,” Silver said. “I have a perfect record. There was no reason to invest in more. Magistrates are filthy rich, but they aren’t made out of money. Not many people can afford to hire multiple bounty hunters of my renown.”
“Just how much do you charge?” Vanessa asked, still watching Silver as if he was a snake hidden in the grass.
“You know that chopper I had? The one these bandits so rudely blew up? That was a good portion of my fee. The coin was just a little bonus.”
Angel’s eyes bulged. “That must have been thousands of Vei! Don’t you have your own? Why get one from him?”
“Of course I’ve got my own.” Silver scoffed. “But I didn’t want to waste that on a job like this. I might have scratched it. And, judging by what happened to the poor thing, I’m glad I didn’t bring mine.”
“You sound more torn up about the chopper than the loss of your crew,” Vanessa observed.
“They were hired guns,” Silver said with a shrug. “People die. They were good soldiers and they followed my orders, which is more than I can say for most crews I’ve had. But nobody will mourn their loss. They were murderers, thieves, and criminals. We all knew that our grave would be in the sand – even them.”
“How can you live like that?” Vanessa asked. “Don’t you care about human life at all?”
“Of course I do,” Silver said, stretching his arms out and yawning. “My own. You’ll be the same, soon enough. The Barren will eat up any humanity you’ve got and turn you into one of us.”
